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catsloveemmanuel's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
cami19's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
atcucchetti's review
4.0
A Terrible Country rumbled around on my TBR for too long. Glad I finally got here. Funny, sensitive and immersive in Russian contemporary culture. A Terrible Country served as a tender reading spot among a pretty dense collection of nonfiction this month. Laugh out loud humor produced largely by Andrei’s awkward outsider role; the tender rendering of his complicated relationship with his failing but spunky grandmother and his authentic, flawed honesty made this a great read for me. Described as the perfect book to understand contemporary Russian society, I appreciated the flavor of Russian language that threads through the book much more as an audiobook than I would have in print.
Andrei’s parents emigrated from Soviet Russia to the US when he was a child. Now, after college with no real job prospects in a declining economy and encouraged by his brother with complicated problems related to the government, Andrei goes to Russia to care for his 89 year old grandmother with dementia living in her Stalin era apartment in Moscow. Andrei navigates a country that no longer resembles what he remembers from his youth while trying to navigate his 20 something poor economy job struggle in academia bolstered along the way by connections with an adult hockey league, a growing romance and a connection with a socialist cadre working to reform Russia during a period of economic decline and government repression.
chillcox15's review against another edition
3.0
Is there already a theoretical apparatus for what I am calling exo-novels? I think contemporary American fiction has been besieged by these exo-novels, which aren't so much as meta-novels commenting on their own narrative state, but are novels that are built around the reader's preconceived preferences of literary taste. A Terrible Country is an exo-novel for people who like (or think they like) classic Russian literature. It doesn't operate in the style or manner of a Doestoevsky, or Gogol, but it's marketed towards people who self-consciously 'like' (in a Facebook sort of way) these authors. While there aren't as many Russ-lit exo-novels, it's easy to see a more profitable enterprise if you look towards the hundreds of novels pushed towards the fans of Jane Austen. Basically all of these novels are written in a non-experimental, realist style that reads as easy-going to the average American reader. It's the nonchallenging echo of a classic. There are several appealing elements in A Terrible Country, and the narration is very readable. There are also some narrative problems, such as how it feels rushed at the end to wrap up everything and put the story to bed.
marsha1268's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
l3nab's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
5.0
. . . I felt the terrible freedom of this place. It was a fortress set down in a hostile environment. On one side the Mongols; on the other the Germans, Balts, and Vikings. So the Russians built this fortress here on a bend in the Yauza River, and hoped for the best. They built it big because they were scared. It was a gigantic country, and even now, in the twenty-first century, barely governed. You could do anything, really. And amid this freedom, this anarchy, people met and fell in love and tried to comfort one another.
In A Terrible Country, under-employed adjunct professor, Andrei Kaplan, moves to Moscow to care for his grandmother. He grew up as her adored grandson, but soon after he arrives, she says this:
"Andryusha," she said. "You're such a dear person to me. To our whole family. But I can't remember right now. How did we come to know you?"
And so begins Andrei's life in Moscow. He's teaching several on-line courses, so he spends hours in the only affordable coffee shop he can find. He cares for his little grandmother, someone he cares deeply about, but is nonetheless often frustrated by. He has trouble making any connections, and even finding a place to play hockey is an insurmountable task. But eventually he settles into Moscow, into the place his grandmother consistently reminds him is a terrible country.
I was utterly charmed by this novel, even charmed by the Moscow Keith Gessen presents, a violent place where might makes right and ordinary people are trampled, if not by the authorities, then by the gangsters who control much of what goes on. Because underneath that cold and disregard are ordinary Muscovites, quietly making lives for themselves, playing hockey, building a dacha, falling in love and working to change their country. This is an outlier for me, as usually a WMFuN* is not something I have tolerance for, but Andrei is such a warm, caring, struggling guy that I liked him and the setting, from Moscow, to the academics scrambling to find employment, to the Muscovites joining together to change Russia was just so fascinating and vividly described.
*White Male Fuck-up Novel
In A Terrible Country, under-employed adjunct professor, Andrei Kaplan, moves to Moscow to care for his grandmother. He grew up as her adored grandson, but soon after he arrives, she says this:
"Andryusha," she said. "You're such a dear person to me. To our whole family. But I can't remember right now. How did we come to know you?"
And so begins Andrei's life in Moscow. He's teaching several on-line courses, so he spends hours in the only affordable coffee shop he can find. He cares for his little grandmother, someone he cares deeply about, but is nonetheless often frustrated by. He has trouble making any connections, and even finding a place to play hockey is an insurmountable task. But eventually he settles into Moscow, into the place his grandmother consistently reminds him is a terrible country.
I was utterly charmed by this novel, even charmed by the Moscow Keith Gessen presents, a violent place where might makes right and ordinary people are trampled, if not by the authorities, then by the gangsters who control much of what goes on. Because underneath that cold and disregard are ordinary Muscovites, quietly making lives for themselves, playing hockey, building a dacha, falling in love and working to change their country. This is an outlier for me, as usually a WMFuN* is not something I have tolerance for, but Andrei is such a warm, caring, struggling guy that I liked him and the setting, from Moscow, to the academics scrambling to find employment, to the Muscovites joining together to change Russia was just so fascinating and vividly described.
*White Male Fuck-up Novel
quiltmom14's review against another edition
4.0
Really good book - a bit about Russia, a bit about being Jewish in Russia, a bit about finding yourself, a bit about family bonds, a bit about caring for grandma....highly recommend.
cmcclure9's review against another edition
4.0
4.5. I thoroughly enjoyed this look into modern day Russia through Andrei's adventures in caring for his grandmother.